Monday, November 9, 2009

Today on Kresta - Nov. 9, 2009

Talking about the "things that matter most" on Nov. 9Live from Redeemer Radio in Fort Wayne, IN

4:00 – Fort Hood jihadist's coworkers saw warning signs, but said nothing for fear of seeming bigotedSome who knew Nidal Malik Hasan said they saw clear signs the young Army psychiatrist, who authorities say went on a shooting spree at the Army base Fort Hood that left 13 dead and 29 others wounded, had no place in the military. There was the classroom presentation that justified suicide bombings. Comments to colleagues about a climate of persecution faced by Muslims in the military. Conversations with a mosque leader that became incoherent. But some of those colleagues now say they were afraid to speak up because they feared appearing to be bigoted. Robert Spencer brings us up to speed on this fast-developing story.

4:20 – Taken Into Custody: The War Against Fathers, Marriage, and the FamilyWhy is the American family in crisis? Stephen Baskerville argues that the most direct cause is the divorce industry: a government-run system that tears apart families, separates children from fit and loving parents, confiscates the wealth of families, and turns law-abiding citizens into criminals in ways they are powerless to avoid. Taken Into Custody exposes the greatest and most destructive civil rights abuse in America today. Family courts and Soviet-style bureaucracies trample basic civil liberties, entering homes uninvited and taking away people's children at will, then throwing the parents into jail without any form of due process, much less a trial. No parent, no child, no family in America is safe.

5:00 – 20 Years Ago Today: The Berlin Wall Comes Down – The Behind the Scenes Story of Reagan and John Paul the GreatWith prayers, music and pomp, Germany today remembered the 20th anniversary of the day the Berlin Wall fell, sending East Germans flooding west and setting in motion events that soon led to the country's reunification. We talk with Paul Kengor about Ronald Reagan, John Paul the Great, and the fall of Communism.

5:20 – St. Damien of Molokai / 2010 Catholic Almanac / 4 ClubsMatthew Bunson joins us in studio at Redeemer Radio in Fort Wayne. He tells us about his trip to Rome for the canonization of Damien of Molokai, the latest edition of the Catholic Almanac and much more.

Al, you have had many programs in which you have talked about the threat of Islam. It's time to come up with a solution. What do you want us to do? What course of action do you advocate?

Specifically:

1) What government polices do you want enacted to fight the Islamic threat?

2) What do you want us non-Muslims to do?

Possible actions in order of aggressiveness (blue-sky stuff):

Should Catholics try to befriend Muslims and attempt to convert them away from their false religion and encourage them to become Catholic?

Should we expel Muslims from the military?

Should the government mandate that security forces be stationed inside each Mosque and record all activities?

Should we harass and intimidate Muslims so that they become uncomfortable living in America and want to go somewhere else?

Should we forcibly expel all Muslims from the country?

Should we put all Muslims in concentration camps (no killing will be allowed) until they convert?

If Al or his listeners have other suggestions, I really want to know what they are. Conservative talk shows, like Al's, have done a splendid job laying out the problem with Islam. They've got my blood boiling. Now it's time for action.

Just as the Catholic leadership is slow to sever its relationship with Catholics who teach error, so too is Catholic leadership slow to start a war with another religion. Communication technology has come a long way since the Crusades.

Show me videos of Catholics executing Muslims. There are none and it would be to our shame if the practice of killing Muslims was ever taught in this day and age. Now we can see many videos of Muslims executing "infidels" and it is to their shame.

Now use the internet to further expose the inhuman, ungodly, and man made teaching that the Muslim religion is. Engage Muslims through the safety of the internet. Learn their teachings so that you can expose the inconsistencies and don't get bogged down in the horror videos of Muslims beheading "infidels". Let those videos illustrate the urgency that YOU learn the Truth and then charitably engaging those who spread error.

Think about it. What good is it to the world if "your blood boils"? It doesn't help the world. And what good is it if YOU have every answer to correct Muslim error but you do not know your Father in heaven.

Study and Debate and above all Pray. Pray because if you let your blood boil hot enough you'll just end up cooking yourself. Angry violence is the devil's seasoning. Lucifer is filling his belly on seasoned Muslims. We need to put an end to the violence by spreading Truth and not hate.

Nick, I will respond later this evening. I am going to work now. I did respond briefly on Stephen Baskerville's blog. I do need more space and time to more thoroughly explain my response. Please look at my brief comment there. Thanks Nick.

O God, our Refuge and our Strength, look down with favor upon Thy people who cry to Thee. And by the intercession of the Glorious and Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of God, of St. Joseph her spouse, of Thy blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and of all the Saints, mercifully and graciously hear the prayers that we pour forth for the conversion of sinners, and for the liberty and exultation of our Holy Mother, the Church, through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen.

As for everything else, see Chris's post. We shouldn't even think of cutting off the ear of the servant.

Thanks Chris and Matthew for your input. Both of you say that prayer should be the foremost weapon in this battle. Come on. When you need medical care, you can pray all you want, but you're going to see a doctor. Nothing shows the failure of prayer more than the horrendous suffering and death of two year old Robyn Twitchell. An operation could have fixed his bowel obstruction. Instead, he suffered for five days, vomiting up his own feces, and then he died. Click on his name and read it. Don't avoid the ugly truth.

Also, Chris and Matthew, I went back and listened to Al's interviews with Robert Spencer. Prayer was not mentioned. And during his last interview with Spencer, on November 9, Al became angry when he realized that people like Janet Napolitano and others in authority, because of political correctness, have a greater concern about an anti-Muslim backlash than on telling the truth about Nidal Hasan and Islam.

I have heard many talk show hosts talk about the evils of Islam: Al Kresta, Sean Hannity, Mike Gallagher, and a local guy here in Denver, Peter Boyles. I got it. I understand. Islam is bad. But none of them offer a plan to fix the problem. Why not? Why don't they propose a plan of action? Are they cowards? And it's not just talk show hosts: Joe Lieberman called Hasan's actions an act of terrorism. Al applauded Joe for using that language. But, Joe! And Al! What do you want us to do? Don't dodge the question any longer.

Nick, Dr. Baskerville did not post my comment on his web. I only have a brief amount of time. His observations are based on his interpretations of events based on studying social systems and the obvious influence these systems have on past and current social trends. His understanding of the suffering of women is a prejudice based on superficial observation. He did not mention any understanding of human development and how the brain will physically develop according to the environmental influences and that the safety of the mother is critical for healthy brain development in the child. The chemical balance in the brain is determined by the environmetal influence. This is determined before the age of three when we typically develop self-awareness. If the quality of attachment to the mother is insecure then the child's brain chemistry will be more influenced by the stress response. Consequently, the child will be aware of an internal distress that further distresses the child and her or his physical, emotional and interpersonal experiences which in turn forms the foundation of the child's identity.This is called the basic fault in which the child begins to believe that she or he is actually permanently flawed and defenses are constructed around the fear associated with this so as to protect oneself from the destress of this shame and prevent others from seeing it.

Males are responsible for creating safety in the environment and the female reacts to the influence of the males disposition. Studies show that when there is a conflict 90% of the time the female initiates a complaint generally around the sense of a loss of a rewarding attachment. 90% of the time the male will escalate the complaint into an argument due to the male being flooded with feelings he has not learned to cope with. From their the male either isolates or he escalates it into a fight for dominance.If we do not know human interpersonal and intrapersonal dynamics we constantly repeat history resulting in what we have today.Must go. Thanks for reading this.Ron

maumanClicking on your link reveals an attack. Do you expect Catholics to answer for all religions? I'm sorry, isn't the Catholic Church responsible for the building of 624 hospitals in the United States alone? A statistic found on the USCCB web site.usccb.org/healthcare/facts.shtml

Prayer leads to prudent action. Don't come here and badmouth prayer. If you have a deficient perception of how prayer works, don't come here accusing Catholics of contributing to the death of Robyn Twitchell. You are being offensive and are advancing an ignorant view of Catholic teaching on prayer.

If you are unwilling to acknowledge the other suggestions I made (study history, debate on the internet, Expose the man made origin of the Muslim religion) then that is your problem, not mine. Why do you expect others to tell you how you should act? Why do you put that burden on Al or Matthew?

It's Al's vocation to expose error and inconsistency and to advance the Truth. It is not Al's responsibility to tell other people how they should run their life.

I would like to purchase a copy of the "Apostle of the Alleghenies, Demetrius Gallitzin". I checked Our Sunday Visitor's website and Amazon and came up dry. Can you post Mr. Bunson's email address. Thx!Andy

You say that prayer leads to prudent action. It's a shame those Christian Science prayers didn't do that. I think we should ask why. Did God allow poor Robyn to suffer his horrible fate in order to teach Christian Scientists a lesson, i.e. that they've got the wrong religion and they need to convert to Catholicism? (Maybe you didn't hear Al's show with Dave Mangan on August 10. You should go to the Kresta archives and listen to it. Listen to David's account of how God miraculously repaired the broken water pump at the Duquesne University retreat house, a miracle that saved the retreat and launched the Charismatic Renewal movement. Dave Mangan's prayers moved God to fix the broken water pump, but David and Ginger Twitchell's prayers for their son Robyn failed. I ask you, Chris. What the hell's going on?)

Regardless of all that (and all that is very important to me), you make my point. To solve a problem, one needs to take action. So I'll ask the question again. What specific actions should be taken to solve the Muslim problem? I don't need any more shows telling me how bad Islam is. Believe me. I got it.

Nick, I have another point for your consideration. Since God brought me home after a 40 year absence Easter of '05 He has formed my understanding of human suffering within the context of mother-child attachment and the importance of the father creating safety within that environment so as to enable the mother to create a rewarding and safe attachment with her child. This is so critical because this attachment determines gene expression within the developing mind of the child and will either create a sense of belonging and being loved or a sense of isolation and fear. This is the hard-wiring of the brain which determines our attachment styles and unconscious expectations of where we fit in. It also determines the ability to love and develop empathy which is critical in knowing the sanctity of all life.

The loss of a safe attachment with the husband and wife began in the garden when the man blamed the woman when God asked him why he ate the fruit. This dynamic in male-female relationships has been contaminating relationships ever since and this is what causes marriages to dissolve and abortions to take place.

maumanSo Christian Science is Catholic? No. But why are you expecting Catholics to account for the errors of Christian Science.Why don't you praise Catholics for building 624 hospitals? Why don't you point out the error of people getting together and starting a man made religion that they called Christian Science?

Now are you trying to mix the man made religion of Christian Science with the stories of Dave Mangan? I've heard Mangan speak. He doesn't treat prayer like a formula that fixes all things. Catholic teaching doesn't promote the idea that prayer is a formula for acquiring power over creation. Mangan's story promotes hope and faith in the existence of God, not hope in the quest to become a Jedi. Prayer is meant to draw you closer to the reality of your Creator. Prayer builds a relationship between you and our creator. Prayer helps you to understand that the joys and sufferings of this life are but a blink of an eye in the real picture. Do you believe in heaven or don't you mauman? Men have free will and they can use it to construct man made gods or they can use it to find truth and serve the God of Truth.

A schizophrenic who learns to pray in tongues still needs to manage his schizophrenia.

Again, thanks for your input. Why didn't I praise Catholics for building 624 hospitals? It was an oversight. Let me correct it.

I praise Catholics for building 624 hospitals.

You might be interested how the Catholic Church compares to the Seventh Day Adventists. I got the numbers from a PDF file which can be downloaded from this web site by clicking on 2007 ASR in the left hand column labeled Current Statistics. The PDF file is the 145th Annual Statistical Report - 2007. In this statistical report the Seventh Day Adventists claim to have 59 hospitals and sanitariums in the U.S. (pages 65-66), and a U.S. church membership of 1,000,578 (page 80). (I think what they call a sanitarium is basically a hospital or medical center, but I'm not absolutely sure about that.)

OK, let's compare. There are 70 million Catholics in the U.S and the Catholic Church has 624 hospitals. There are 1 million Seventh Day Adventists in the U.S and they have 59 hospitals. So there are 70 times as many Catholics as Seventh Day Adventists, but the Catholic Church has only about 11 times as many hospitals. I praised the Catholic Church, Chris. Will you praise the Seventh Day Adventists?

By the way. I'm not a Seventh Day Adventist. I grew up in the Catholic Church, was an altar boy (Latin Mass, then English), and went to 12 years of Catholic school. I would call myself a non-believer. I'm also OK with agnostic (without knowledge). I do not believe in Heaven. That's not the same thing as saying that I believe Heaven does not exist. So I don't exactly agree with the late Laura Nyro's lyrics in her song "And When I Die," but I like them anyway: "I swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell."

I don't understand the part about a schizophrenic who learns to speak in tongues. Could you explain that?

maumanWhy do you spend time trying to diminish the work of the Catholic Church. Does the Catholic Church only build hospitals?

You atheists are always looking for a slight. You want to pluralize all religions so that your sophist slander game is made easier.

"Will you praise the Seventh Day Adventists?"I will praise all men of good will, and I will challenge men of ill will. I believe you to be the later. It is not right to kill Muslims for being Muslim. The original intent of the Crusades was to stop Muslims from killing Christians. It was not launched in order to exterminate people who hold erroneous beliefs.

So you want Catholics to get hot and bothered over the Muslims, should we get hot and bothered over the atheists too who are weakening our country by pretending that morality is not a fruit of religion? The atheists who end up enabling the growth of Muslim hate for America. The atheist soldiers of Satin. The atheist defenders of pornography. The atheist mockers of the pro life movement. When Muslims commit terrible acts against the United States, but then say it is because America spreads it's pornographic filth throughout the world, are they lying when they say that America spreads pornography throughout the world? The Muslim is sick and wrong and unjustified in his terrorism but if spreading pornography was the trigger that set off the mad man then America is guilty of constructing such a trigger.

So I will applaud the Seventh Day Adventist of good will who seeks to live a consistent life and who is engaged in the acquisition of Truth so that they can live in greater and greater accord with the Truth so long as they have days on this earth.

While applauding the Seventh Day Adventist, I will also feel shame for the Atheist of ill will who plays the Sophist and hisses into the ear of his fellow man "You are the one who decides what is right and wrong. You are the master of creation".

An Atheist of good will should be applauded for good acts as well, but where are they?

Thanks for the extended comment on Stephen Baskerville. While it's interesting, from Stephen's point of view, the courts have no business doing therapy. Their focus should be justice - not the best interest of the child. The parents maintain the best interest of the child. So the attachment issues belong in the realm of family, and the courts are too clumsy a mechanism. Thanks for listening and engaging.

Al, Thanks for your response. The courts do not do therapy they follow recommendations. Domestic violence is epidemic and women are afraid. The feminist movement is a movement motivated by fear. The leaders are afraid and psychologically defended from their fears so as not to appear vulnerable. I do not know the exact statistics at this point but 20 years ago I remember 1 out of 4 women reported sexual abuse in their childhood. How many millions of women is that? That is just the reported cases. I know there are cases of false memory that have tainted the abuse issue but the abuse is real and children needed protecting. I have seen this beginning in 1974.The feminist is a feminist because of being harmed. She has adapted to the male's aggressive problem-solving style. I have treated veterans with PTSD and women who have been harmed exhibit the same symptoms as those vets. It is much more extensive than "low self-esteem." These symptoms can cause a numbing effect which generalizes to all parts of their lives. One of the symptoms is a diminished ability to love and safely attach. Anything that causes fear can trigger an increase in numbing. So, when childhood is associated with intense fear and helplessness numbing can dominate and the child becomes associated with the past and thus can be aborted.A sociologist has no experience in psychodynamics and his evaluation is superficial and tainted with ignorance. It is misleading.I am so frustrated that those who share the faith with millions have not discussed this aspect. It is so obvious to me. God gave me this vocation. I did not choose this.